Full Circle

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Background
This study will continues and completes a conversation which Jesus had with some of the Jews on the Temple grounds of Jerusalem. Many of these Jews had believed what Jesus was saying, and even put their faith in Him. In turn, Jesus told them that they had no place for His word, that they were trying to kill Him, and that they were the offspring of the Devil.

Full Circle

In the conversation we began studying in John, Jesus told a group of Jews, who had believed Him and had put their faith in Him, that their intent was to kill Him. Do not worry. As we conclude this conversation, we will surely find Jesus' words made true, even at the expense of logic.

We left off at John 8:42-47, with Jesus telling the Jews that they could not understand His words because their father was the Devil. (Blessed are the peacemakers.) If these Jews had no reason to want to kill Jesus before, a comment like that might be reason enough to provoke such anger, but that is not what we find. In John 8:48, the Jews instead reply in inexplicable unison like so:

The Jews answered [Jesus], "Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?" NIV

A Samaritan and demon-possessed? Let us look at these claims a little closer, but "the first will be last." ;-) The phrase "demon-possessed" is used here in place of "crazy" or "insane," as this was the common explanation of that era for someone who was suffering from mental illness, or who was deaf, or mute, or any number of medical conditions which cause someone to act abnormally or disabled without an obvious cause.

Now, about Jesus being a Samaritan... There are a couple angles to look at. The first is Jesus' origin in the region of Galilee. This region was part of the old Kingdom of Israel after the split from the Kingdom of Judea. This kingdom had also taken on the name "Samaria," which was its capitol city. However, this is not likely the sense in which "Samaritan" is used here.

Instead, the second, and most likely, angle is the use of Samaritan as an ethnoreligious group. When the kingdoms had split, their shared religion effectively split too; it was a schism which was almost similar in basis to that of the later Islamic one for Sunni versus Shia. As John 4:9 reports, the Jews did not associate with the Samaritans, despite having the same foundations.

So these Jews replied to Jesus by essentially saying that He was a crazy person who believes in a perversion of the true religion. Through the repeated discouragement of His chosen words and direction of the conversation, Jesus converted Jews who had faithfully believed Him (John 8:30-31) into Jews who thought that He was a crazy heretic. This is hardly behavior worth emulating.

As the conversation continues, Jesus claimed that He was not demon-possessed, that He seeks glory for God, and if anyone obeyed His words, they would not taste death. The Jews balked at this, said that they now knew that He was demon possessed (crazy), and asked Jesus if He thought He was better than Abraham. Jesus replied that God glorifies Him, and that Abraham was happy to see Jesus' day come. The Jews scoffed at this, because Jesus was not old enough to have seen Abraham (John 8:49-57).

The episode concludes in John 8:58-59, with Jesus incontrovertibly claiming to be part of God, and the Jews, instead of thinking that Jesus was just a harmless lunatic, trying to kill Him:

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone Him, but Jesus hid Himself, slipping away from the Temple grounds. NIV

Selective Wrath and Revelation

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Background
Back while the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, God told Moses that He was going to liberate them and take them to a Promised Land which was full of milk and honey (Exodus 3:7-10). God delivered on the first part of His promise to liberate them through a series of plagues. However, after over a year of wondering around in the desert, the Israelites have yet to even see the Promised Land. Furthermore, all that they have been eating for over a year is a coriander-like grain/bread called manna, which was provided by God.

In the study of the previous chapter, we saw that some of the Israelites began complaining about their meager diet. So God provided. He sent them quail. And He sent them a plague; killing several of them while their first bite of quail was still in their mouths for making such a complaint.

Despite the plague, there were still dissenting voices, as we will see in this study.

Selective Wrath and Revelation
One hallmark of justice is that if you were to catch two people committing the same transgression at the same time, they would both get punished. It is only fair. God, having perfect justice, would be expected to exemplify this, unless He instead chooses to exhibit His perfect mercy. Mercy contradicts justice, but typically in a good way. Let us take a look at God executing some justice in Numbers 12.

Numbers 12:1-2 opens the chapter with Aaron, Moses's brother (Exodus 4:14) and the Israelite's High Priest (Exodus 28:1, Exodus 28:41, Leviticus 21:10), and Miriam, Aaron's prophetess sister (Exodus 15:20), complaining about Moses. They both pick apart his interracial marriage and they voice jealousy over his perceived position of superiority.

Maybe that would have been OK, except for the fact that “the Lord heard this,” according to the end of Numbers 12:2. Just like in the previous study, this kind of expression suggests that there are things which can be said outside the hearing of God, things which God would not know about, as if God was a man with physical limitations.

In an aside, Numbers 12:3 states that Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth. This is obviously in defense of Aaron's and Miriam's complaint. However, this statement stands off as rather amusing, given that traditionally Moses is considered to be the author the first five books of the Bible, including Numbers. Because if so, Moses is bragging about how humble he is!

What follows next in Numbers 12:4-8 is a scene fitting of a Greek mythological play. God calls Moses, Aaron, and Miriam to the Tent of Meeting. Once they are there, God, in person, descends down to the Tent of Meeting on a cloud.

God tells Aaron and Miriam that He only talks to other prophets through visions and dreams (Numbers 12:6). However, with Moses, God talks to him face-to-face (like He is doing right now with Aaron and Miriam!), and without riddles (Numbers 12:7). So why do they dare speak against Moses?

This is a pregnant revelation. It reveals that God has a human form. It reveals that people, even sinful people, can be in God's presence and see His form without dying. Finally, and most significantly, it reveals that God purposefully provides unclear instructions which are subject to interpretation except for in very rare cases.

According to Numbers 12:9-10, God was angry with both of them. However, God only punishes Miriam, endowing her with a horrible skin disease.

This Miriam's first (and only) transgression recorded in the Bible. In fact, this is only the second mention of Miriam in the Bible. Previously she was shaking a tambourine and singing praises to God in Exodus 15:20-21.

On the other hand, Aaron had committed a recorded sin, and it was a major one. In fact, his sin was a transgression according to both the popular and the Biblical versions of the Ten Commandments. In Exodus 32, Aaron had made a golden cow idol for the Israelites to worship. Yet, just like in that incident where over 3000 Israelites died by sword and plague for their sin, Aaron again slips by unscathed and unpunished by God. Also just like before, there is no explanation of why Aaron escapes God's wrath. God's justice seems incomplete, and therefore imperfect.

In the conclusion of the story, Numbers 12:11-16 tells us that Moses prayed to God to heal Miriam. God asks Moses that “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days?” (Numbers 12:13) It never explicitly mentions that Miriam gets healed. However, she waits for seven days before returning to the camp, and by law she could not return to the camp with a skin disease (Leviticus 13:46), so she probably was healed.

While it is somewhat dismaying to think that God, the Heavenly Father, would symbolically spit in anyone's face, the justice and judgement He applies to Miriam is actually good. After all, if you are a parent wanting to discipline your child to correct their future behavior, it seems best to do so as soon as the transgression is discovered, and to provide punishment which strong yet not permanent.

It is a shame that God skips the judgement on Aaron, but it is a mistake that God actually seems to prefer simply killing sinners after it is too late as opposed to providing preventative corrective punishments like what happened to Miriam. The Flood. The Plagues. The Israelites entry into the Promised Land based on the sins of the Amorites. These and many, many more Biblical examples show how the Heavenly Father drops the “rod of correction” (Proverbs 29:15), only to blast condemning wrath when He finds that His children are too far gone in their sins.

Be Careful What You Wish for from God

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Background
In second month of the second year since the Israelites were brought out of Egypt by God, the Israelites left the Desert of Sinai (on the Sinai peninsula), according to Numbers 10:11. To put that in perspective, if they took the longest possible path and went around the coast of the Sinai peninsula instead of through the desert, they have traveled approximately 300 miles (483 kilometers). If you walked at the slow pace of 1.0 mile per hour (1.6 kilometers per hour) for only eight hours a day, you could cover that amount of ground in about 38 days.

It has been over a year since they left, and they still have yet to see the Promised Land. Not too surprisingly, some of the Israelites are starting to complain. That is where we pick up this study.

Be Careful What You Wish for from God
Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. This common proverb suggests that you do not always know what is good for you.

Asking for something from God should be different, right? Not that you would know what is best for you in that case, but rather that God would know that and would therefore only give you what actually is good for you. Those familiar with the New Testament may recall Matthew 7:9-12 and Luke 11:11-13 where Jesus points out that you would not give your son a snake if he asked for a fish, and then extrapolates that your heavenly Father will likewise give good gifts to those who ask Him.

Well, let us look into that claim more closely. Numbers 11 seems like a good spot to investigate.

Numbers 11:1-3 starts the chapter on a bad note. Some of the Israelites are complaining about their hardships, and they do so “in the hearing of the Lord.” (That partial quote is from Numbers 11:1, and it implies that they were physically close enough to God for Him to hear them, as if God was a being subject to physical constraints.) God is angered by this, and so He kills some of them with fire. The people cried to Moses. Moses prays to God. The fire stops.

In Numbers 11:4-35, the story goes from bad to worse. Numbers 11:4-6 tells of how the Israelites complained that all they had to eat was manna, and that they miss the variety of free foods they had in Egypt.

As you may remember, in Exodus 16 is the tale of when God first starts giving the manna to the Israelites; on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt. According to Numbers 10:11, it is now at least the twentieth day of the second month in the second year, so they have been eating manna for over a year now. Day in, and day out. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Any guess as to why they were complaining?

What is manna? Numbers 11:7-9 says that it was like coriander seed and looked like resin, that people would prepare it to eat in a couple different ways after grinding it up like some kind of grain, and that it tasted like something made with olive oil. Strangely enough, this is somewhat contradictory to the earlier description in Exodus 16:4 that manna was a type of bread and in Exodus 16:31 which says that it looked white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.

It should also quickly be noted that the Israelites did not begin receiving the manna until they complained that they had no food. So God rewarded their complaint.

Returning to the story at hand, in Numbers 11:10-15 is a rather amusing rant from Moses, with Moses saying that leading the Israelites is a real pain, and that he would rather be dead unless God provides some help. God replies in Numbers 11:16-17 that He will anoint seventy elders with the Spirit to help share the burden. So God again rewards a complaint.

Circling back to the Israelites' complaints, in Numbers 11:18-20 God says that He has heard their complaints, and will give them meat for a whole month, “until it comes out [their] nostrils and [they] loath it” because they have rejected God. Apparently the desire to have variety in your diet constitutes as rejection of God.

What is even more strange is that God is going to give them meat. Their complaint in Numbers 11:5 was about not having fish, but also about cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. Previously, in Exodus 16:3 they had complained about not having meat. But altogether, it is silly that they would have complained simply about not having meat or that they needed God to provide meat because they had left Egypt with large droves of livestock (Exodus 12:38)!

In Numbers 11:21-22, Moses questions God's ability to provide meat for all of the Israelites for an entire month. That is silly. After all, God made the universe out of nothing, right? Moses should have known better, but instead it seems that Moses has no faith. Of course, if this is just a tale of fiction, there is no need to make sense.

The elders get anointed and begin helping Moses. Joshua makes his first appearance, being jealous that the elders are prophesying (Numbers 11:23-30).

Then, in the thrilling conclusion of the story in Numbers 11:31-35, God sends quail into the camp, echoing what was done earlier in Exodus 16:12-13. (The Bible does like to tell a good story at least twice, like with old Sarah being taken in by Pharaoh and then Abimelech.) However, in a new twist of spiteful wrath, God kills some of the Israelites with a severe plague “while the meat was still between their teeth and before it could be consumed” (Numbers 11:33), instead of simply rewarding their complaints like last time.

So we see that the proverb stands true in this case; that even with God you should be careful what you wish for. Also, God appears to be inconsistent in rewarding complaints. And finally, far from being a loving heavenly Father bestowing only good gifts to those who ask of Him, God punishes them with His wrath, killing them just for asking for a little variety. Sad.

He Struggles With God

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Background
How can you tell if God really likes you? He renames you. Sometimes, the names that God would give to people would foretell something about that person's life. For example, Abram was renamed by God to Abraham, literally “father of many”, because he would be the father of many nations. Sometimes, the names just marked a significant event or accomplishment in that person's life.

On a different note, there is some debate over whether or not God has a physical form that can be seen. In several accounts in the OT, God, or in some cases the angel of God, dwells on earth with man and physically interacts with him. The majority of modern believers do not consider God, the Father, to have a physical form. To reconcile this belief, these OT accounts of physical interaction are often dismissed as being only angels with physical forms that represent God. Some even theorize that these physical apparitions of God in the OT were actually God, the Son, Jesus.

In this study, we examine the curious case of when God physically appears to Jacob and renames him Israel. Before this moment, Jacob and family are traveling and are about to cross a river on their way to meet his brother, Edom/Esau. Jacob had prayed to God that He would keep His promise and not let his brother kill him, and he had sent a bunch of gifts to his brother to pacify any lingering hard feelings due to Jacob's past dishonesty.

He Struggles With God
In Genesis 32:22-31, we find the interesting tale of when the patriarch Jacob gets renamed to a name that is today practically synonymous with the Holy Land. Jacob is renamed Israel. It starts out when Jacob is all alone one night, having sent all of his possessions, including his family and servants, across a river which was en route to Edom/Esau, his brother.

The text in the short story is rich with important details that lose their effect when dissected piece by piece without a complete read. So here is the critical text; Genesis 32:24-30:

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that He could not overpower him, He touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."

But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

The man asked him, "What is your name?"

"Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."

But He replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then He blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." NIV

In this text, it is plain to see that God has a face. God has a physical form, and that form is of a man. Whether this is supposed to be the Father or the Son, we can not say. It is “a man” that wrestles with Jacob, and Jacob claims to have seen God face to face.

Note that this is not to limit God, to say that He could not take on any form He wanted to take. However, this does draw a close parallel with the various gods of ancient days that typically had a humanoid form. Man created gods in his own image.

One thing I find particularly interesting: God, omnipotent God, in man-form could not overpower Jacob. It would seem as though God gave up super powers in man-form. Almost...

The next curious event is that God, when He saw He could not win, fought dirty! He used His super powers to “touch” Jacob's hip socket joint to wound him. Is that the kind of God you can respect out of love and dignity, or the kind you respect out of fear?

Though not stated explicitly, one may ascertain that the reason for this dirty move was to somehow try to gain a physical advantage. Clearly as the story plays out, this seems not to have worked. And so, this would seem to be a failure of God's omniscience.

Jacob is renamed Israel, which literally means “he struggles with God”. God sites the reason for this renaming as being “because [Jacob had] struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Past tense. Although one could say that Israel, the nation, has struggled with and continues to struggle with God. From that perspective, that name seems like a prophesy. But in truth, nearly all nations and nearly all peoples struggle with the concept of god. We are all Israel.

I'll leave you with some study questions to ponder: What did God hope to gain by wrestling with Jacob? Was it His intension to lose the match all along? If this was just an opportunity for God to meet with Jacob personally and bless him, why did God choose to wrestle with him?